I finally cleaned up and shared the high school environmental science curriculum I developed for home school: The Earth From Home. It opens with Wendell Berry’s NEH lecture “It All Turns On Affection,” relies as much as possible on North Carolina ecosystems and resources, includes lots of field trips, and ends with a 15-page research paper. Or you can just play with the nonlinear population modeler I built.
Here’s a little tip for all y’all thinking about staying in and cooking this weekend: lentil soup is much better if you remember to put in the lentils. Ask me how I know.
In Which the Morton Salt Girl Falls on Hard Times
Ran across an outline for a story about the Morton salt girl: The trouble started when Morton needed a new slogan. People used to non-clumping salt didn’t get “when it rains it pours.” in-house ad guys come up with “we gather it ourselves for purity.” But they don’t. Executive (chomping cigar, etc) says “send the girl!” The Morton salt girl, happy for a hundred years except for the occasional bout of pneumonia, is sent to work in salt mines of Bolivia.
“All We Need Is Here,” December 2024.
Digging through old unpublished writing this week. Here’s a little light verse for your Friday:* Pangloss Teaches Geometry.
*If it’s already Saturday where you are, sorry, you’ll have to wait until next week. That’s just how it goes.
Sometimes when words shift meanings over time translation is needed to prevent confusion, and sometimes the space between old and new creates new meaning. The NRSV is not very old at all, but still Isaiah 65:2: “…a rebellious people, who walk in a way that is not good, pursuing their own devices,” is suddenly so apt as to be almost laugh-out-loud funny.
Pink sky in the morning means wintry mix, like on the weather map, right?
Behind bare trees
A man and two dogs, taut
Against their leashes and the cold,
Go about their business.
Poem: “The Great Blue Heron” by Carolyn Kizer